SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2024

A Christmas Carol   Dan Gordon in 'A Christmas Carol'. Photo: Carrie Davenport

Perhaps the best way to begin considering the genuine family affair and delight that is Marie Jones's adaptation of A Christmas Carol, directed by Jones's son Matthew McElhinney, is to think of why the narrative is so enduring and so open to adaptation to begin with. It's a story that has survived time and stood firm in its appeal not through Charles Dickens and his writing alone, but also as a template, of sorts, for the sudden and brief epiphanies of such weight and vitality that drive many of the most revered classics of film, literature and stage. It is, in short, character development at its most crucial, timely and effective, the kind which finds a new and very welcome voice in the most appropriate surroundings at Belfast's Lyric Theatre.

One thing that is a surety at the play's opening is that we will see a Christmas Carol in Belfast, accents and all. Presented by "The Pottinger Players" in a period setting, it begins with a request that we the audience from Christmas Future be kind to this Christmas from the Past by turning off our mobile phones before we get a real look at Stuart Marshall's awesome set. Awesome's not a word I use lightly, but it's justified here, such is Marshall's real and marvellous sense of three-dimensional space blended with landmarks Dickensian and local. Splashes of colour from Mary Tumelty's lighting and Catherine Kodicek's versatile costuming, not to mention Fleur Mellor's sturdy choreography and another fine set of Garth McConaghie compositions, illustrate a noir-ish but not quite noir tone for this classic tale – that which is certainly brighter than a Sweeney Todd but with maybe more edge than that of Michael Caine and The Muppets over three decades ago.

Jones's Ebenezer Scrooge is actor Dan Gordon, who commands the stage with a performance of astonishing transitional subtlety. Rather than a melodramatic, pronounced outsider in pain or joy, Gordon's Scrooge seems a very uneasy part of the furniture, either in modern times or Victorian times. His disdain for and distance from the holiday season in the face of the apparently happier inhabitants of this town are frighteningly recognisable, a bold and honest statement of the increasing cynicism that's unavoidable when the period's supposedly most pleasing elements stop feeling like a gift and start feeling like an obligation.

Marty Maguire, Matthew Forsythe, Jayne Wisener and Dan Gordon in 'A Christmas Carol'.
Photo: Carrie Davenport

The epiphanies which those familiar with the story know will come from the spirits of Past, Present and Future are totally believable, because it's equally believable, from the early scenes, that this Ebenezer would have allowed himself to really celebrate with the likes of his nephew Fred, played by Richard Clements, and his employee Bob Cratchit, played by Matthew Forsythe, in his younger years - the level of detail from his journey in the past is testament to that, but so too are Gordon's expressions. Gordon's Scrooge is bitter, for sure, but it is less a case of pointed anger than worn down apathy, the latter of which can be a lot more deadly than the former. The spirits are important, but they're only a catalyst – any time of year, let alone Christmas, requires a level of help from within as well as without, something that Jones, McElhinney and the entire cast and crew have fully grasped.

With Gordon the pivot, the remainder of the cast shine in a mixture of defined roles and multiple character playing, successfully contributing to both the atmosphere and the messaging. Narrative "interludes" get their recognition in a pair of humorous musicians played by Conor Hinds and Katie Shortt, Marty Maguire's Jacob Marley alternately terrifies and amuses by illustrating the burdens of distant workaholism and soulless frugality, and a powerful showing by Jayne Wisener as Belle and Mrs Cratchit brings devastation on a hard-hitting and quiet scale respectively. In the presence of Mary Moulds' Mrs Fezziwig, Jonny Grogan's young Scrooge, Forsythe's Bob and Ellen Whitehead's poignantly portrayed Tiny Tim, Wisener is terrific at reflecting desire and heartbreak and how far a person may or can go in order to conceal them.

But it may be that the strongest aspect of Jones's A Christmas Carol is its clever positing of a world where it looks like a holiday as close to one's idea of perfection as possible can exist, at least in one's memory, when they're not dominated or weighed down by fear of making a difference. It appears fully aware that even if all our Christmases come and go before we know it, time can nonetheless be found to reflect upon and face the uncertainty and unease in the self, our family and friends, and build upon that in order to find a platform of comfort and growth. It is a production where we find that our Scrooges are the apparent redundancies but truthful necessities of Christmas who are omnipresent not because they won't go away, but because we need them to be part of our lives – their journey is as foundational and significant for them as it is for us.

Simon Fallaha

A Christmas Carol runs at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre until Saturday January 11, 2025. For more information, click here.